Last updated at 08:53, Tuesday, 19 March 2013

A firm which makes cakes and puddings has been given the go-ahead for a £2 million expansion which will create 75 jobs over the next five years.

Classic Desserts received permission to build a factory at its base on the Blencathra Business Centre at Threlkeld, near Keswick, despite objections from residents over road safety fears.

Lucy Harrison, chairman of Threlkeld Quarry Residents’ Association, told Lake District planners there were massive potholes on the unadopted private access road used by delivery lorries and that the regular, heavy traffic posed a danger to local children.

Mrs Harrison said Classic Desserts’ move from business units into a purpose-built factory “would change the whole ethos of the site”.

Planners voted unanimously to back the plan to build a new factory with offices and staff facilities after insisting on adding a string of traffic restrictions, limiting the times when deliveries can be made at or from the site.

Classic Desserts director Ben Shamash said: “We are very excited that the authority has approved the revised application.

“It is good news for the local economy and jobs creation. It is a significant investment for us of up to about £2m.”

The firm was set up as a small enterprise more than 20 years ago and has been operating in recent years from several units at the business centre, which Mr Shamash said had become cramped as the privately-owned company continued to grow. It produces frozen desserts and cakes, including sticky toffee pudding, to supply to restaurants, pubs and coffee shops.

Twenty letters had been received objecting to the plan, with five in support of building the new facility to produce desserts, confectionery and puddings. The development will allow a new two-shift system to operate.

First published at 08:52, Tuesday, 19 March 2013
Published by http://www.newsandstar.co.uk